For Bangladesh the year 2005 was a rude awakening from a mode of denial. On the morning of August 17, the country was shaken as more than 500 bombs went off within a span of half an hour in a precisely coordinated manner in 63 of the country’s 64 districts. At every bomb location, leaflets were recovered belonging to a banned Islamic militant group, Jamaʾatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). Though casualties were minor—2 deaths and slight injuries to 100 persons—it was nonetheless a moment of embarrassment for the government, which had flatly denied local and international media reports saying that terrorists linked to al-Qaeda were organizing in Bangladesh. Though the government finally admitted that JMB was behind the blasts, it also suggested that there were “foreign forces” behind such a well-organized attack plan. The government subsequently embarked upon an antimilitant drive and apprehended some 170 terrorists, but this effort created a stir among the country’s Islamic political parties, two of which were coalition partners in the government. The parties warned that harassing mullahs in the name of catching militants would not be tolerated.

Police officers try to disperse women participating in a general strike on August 20 in Dhaka, the …

AP

Earlier in the year, the killing on January 27 of S.A.M.S. Kibria, an Awami League (AL) party leader and a former UN undersecretary-general, shocked the country. Two grenades were tossed at him at a rally in the northeastern district of Habiganj. At least 3 other people were killed, and some 50 more were injured. The government’s already rocky relationship with the opposition AL only worsened in the wake of the attack. The AL, angered by an unfinished probe into an earlier grenade attack that had killed 21 people at another party rally in August 2004, remained skeptical about the government’s commitment to investigating Kibria’s murder. Charges were ultimately brought against 10 people, 8 of whom had connections to the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). Kibria’s family rejected the investigation, however, saying that the masterminds of the attack were still at large.

Bangladesh once again came under international scrutiny when reports surfaced that the Ahmadiyya community was being persecuted. In particular, Islamic fundamentalist parties Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikyo Jote demanded that the government declare the Ahmadiyyas non-Muslims in the fashion of Pakistan, but the government—which had banned the Ahmadiyya religious book in 2004—remained silent to the demands. The persecution of the Ahmadiyyas evoked international reaction, including one from the U.S. assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, Christina Rocca, who during a visit to Dhaka in May expressed her concern over the treatment of the Ahmadiyyas.

On the economic front, Bangladesh came under severe pressure from a few sides. Despite a healthy 8.71% growth in exports from January to June, as well as a 32.1% rise in foreign assistance and a 14.13% rise in remittance from overseas workers in fiscal 2004–05, the country’s foreign-exchange reserves dwindled to $2.73 billion in September from $3.02 billion in June. This followed a sudden 18.45% jump in imports during the January–June period. Inflation rose to 7.35% in June from 5.5% in January. In September the government increased state-controlled fuel prices by 18%, stoking fears of a further price hike and demand squeeze. As a reaction to inflationary pressure, the government embarked on a tighter monetary policy.